Playing a warlock has given me a whole new perspective on tanking. More specifically, I can now see how other paladins tank.

I've run into two main types: those who play like paladins and those who play like warriors. What do I mean by this? The second type is best described by this quote: "If I wanted a tank that needs CC I'd have gotten a warrior." They want CC, they do not at all understand or embrace their strength as AoE tanks.

There is another layer of grouping as well, though this is better applied to all players.1) Players that know what to do.2) Players that don't know what to do, but know this and are willing to listen.3) Players that don't know what to do, but refuse to listen to advice, instead saying: "don't tell me how to play my class."

I've mostly run into paladins that are some mix of 1 and 2. They have the general idea, they just need some fine-tuning. For example, one would pull with exorcism, citing the higher aggro. But he listened when I pointed out that with three mobs, avenger's shield will give more aggro overall and he can still follow up with exorcism.

On the other hand I've run into a type 3. He insisted on CC and did not use consecrate. I am not sure if he used holy shield or not, but he got offended when I suggested that he try tanking entire pulls.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-CC. There are times when tanking everything is undesirable. Moroes is a convenient example. Being stunned or MSed is just bad and worth using CC to prevent.But most of the time CC is just a drag. It takes time to mark. Sure, it might only be 5-10 seconds per pull, but instances have a lot of trash. 10 seconds over 20 pulls adds up to over three minutes. I know, three minutes isn't the end of the world, but we are all human and who wants to wait around?The damage is lower too. Maybe a DPS in 5-man gear can pull 1000 DPS. But a naked mage with three targets can break that with arcane explosion spam. Give him 6 targets and flamestrike, blastwave, cone of cold, and blizzard and you're going to see a lot more than 1k DPS.

I've barely played my paladin for the last week because my warlock suddenly became fun to play again. It took me about 12 months to get from 60 to 62. In about a week I got to over halfway to 68.

I'm affliction right now and it has some elements similar to protection. Grinding is very efficient; DoT up a mob, fear, DoT the next one, fear, first mob is dead, use drain soul and dark pact for regen. In comparison a prot paladin is more like this: pull everything, kill individual mobs fairly slowly (like DoTs) but have a steady stream of mobs getting attacked to create a high overall damage output. Use SoW for regen and figurine of the colossus for health, resulting in no downtime. In instances I often find myself in a similar role of keeping clothies from getting squished. Fear, seduce, deathcoil, and howl of terror make for a lot of control.

The Alliance does seem to be different than the Horde. I hate to start factional bashing, but more often than not they are noobs and are terrible at listening to directions. Having no Barrens results in Barrens Chat everywhere.

Being back on a PvP server was a huge change for me. It's not a constant gank-fest, but you definitely have to stay alert. I've learned to always have a healthstone and to not use deathcoil on a mob unless it is life or death. When I was destruction I ran with a succubus almost always, an invisible seducer is a valuable thing to have; but I don't use her against mobs to prevent her getting killed first. She's turned around ganks several time, pinning my new enemy in place long enough for a soulfire to deliver a lot of pain.

My biggest adjustment so far has been not tanking. It's so slow! People are taking half their time marking, CCing, I can't believe people consider such a tedious process to be normal. I ran into one paladin tank, but he told me to not tell him how to play his class when I pointed out that it would be faster to AoE pull. He was afraid to lose aggro on extra mobs and got offended when I said that's what holy shield and consecration are for. It just seemed silly to make a paladin and then tank like a warrior.

That leads me to my next rant; what is it with people not wanting to be told how to play? I'd love to have a warlock explain a better spec or cast sequence. So why would someone get offended by advice? Many people are so busy making themselves feel better that they never get around to actually being better.

My paladin did heroic SH today. From the warlock to Kargath was 10-15 minutes. Nice quick five badges overall and some people got the Trial of the Naaru quest done. In other words, lots of pwnage.

My shaman has terrible enhancement gear, so PvP should provide some big upgrades. But who wants to PvP in crap gear with a crap PvP spec? So I went resto. I'd remembered being pretty tough in the past, able to take a good beating. I guess that was two arena seasons ago and before hunters got dispel on arcane shot. It was humbling. About all I stood a chance against were rogues.

I don't think I regret shelving my shaman for my paladin. Sure, I prefer resto to holy, but I don't like healing all that much anyway. In PvE I prefer to tank, something shamans cannot do. In PvP I prefer the greater durability of my paladin; my shaman can only come close as resto and in that case I lose my ability to kill people in seconds. Still, I do wish I'd not fallen so far behind. I suppose WotLK will give a clean slate.

Enter seal of command."Hello there, paladins. I am a really great seal. I scale with just about anything you can think of. I do 70% of weapon damage and use melee hit and crit. But I take mana to cast, so get that intellect. But here's the real bonus! I also do 20% of your spell damage and I'm holy damage, so I benefit from things like sanctity aura, misery*, and JotC."

Crusader Strike pushes SoC aside."11 points? That's not a ret build. Now 41 points, that shows you're committed... to me! I'm the serious stuff. 100% of your weapon damage and 40% of your spell damage; that's some major hurt! Think of me as SoC, except bigger and more reliable."

After some flexing CS blushes and stammers out a last line before scurrying away: "I forgot to mention, I'm physical, so watch out for armor."

A homeless man stumbles onto the stage, ranting and raving."Crusades, we're on crusades! JUDGING THEM WITH CRUSADES! More holy damage. 219, 219, 219. Retribution aura? Of course not, don't be a fool. Blessing of sanctuary!? Get out of my sight! Ohhh, yes of course... seal of command, yes yes. You know of crusader strike? Strange one him, crazy, does crazy stuff! We used to work together you know. I gave him more damage. Now he thinks he's too good for me!"

Narrator: Crusader Strike was eventually arrested after robbing a bank, claiming he needed more resilience. He lost his spell damage privileges and was ordered by the judge to 10% more weapon damage. His community service trips are more frequent as well.

The Internet has a serious lack of strangers posting their opinions anonymously, so I'm going to do my part to fill that gap.

My name is Klepsacovic and I am a Troll Shaman. This is no longer my main, but it is the name I identify with so it is what I will use. My main is a blood elf paladin named Kelpsacovic. I'd run out of semi-creative names and people tended to misspell my name this way anyway.

I'm prot in PvE, farming Karazhan and Gruul's Lair. In PvP I spec ret, being maybe a little better than average. I wouldn't call myself casual or hardcore. They mean totally different things to different people, so they are worthless for communication. Great terms for trolling though.

If I did have to classify myself, I'd say I play a lot, I'm knowledgeable about the game, and I have ambitions beyond my current content. In the event that I wanted to deflect responsibility for my current position, I'd say I am where I am because this is where my friends are. I don't mourn my position, I don't see much point in being more advanced but with people I don't know and don't care about. It's people like that who cause drama and tear apart guilds and that's something I want no part of. I've done the anonymous raiding thing pre-BC and a little post-BC; it's just not as much fun.

Good night and remember that Eye for an Eye is only 30% as overpowered as whatever just hit you.